


Sleepless Nights

by andamiro (arysthaeniru)



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 13:33:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3979852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/andamiro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another year older just means another year closer to the grave, for Captain Sanada Genichirou of the outlaw research ship, SS Scourge.  Still, it doesn't mean he can't enjoy his life now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleepless Nights

**Author's Note:**

> This is heavily based off an RP I used to run. It probably doesn't make any sense to anyone who wasn't in SpaceZombiePuri, but that Sanada was bugging me for a fic. 
> 
> I tried my hardest to make my love for Sanada and Tooyama's friendship a thing, but Kin-chan was being stubborn and I was on a time-limit ^^;;;

_The Emperor loomed over him and there was paper crinkled between his long, thin fingers and anger building up around his eyes. Sanada swallowed, and adjusted his hat, nervously. But he'd known this was coming. He'd known it for a very long time. From the time he'd spoken up against the decision taken with the rebels on Montashma's capital three months ago, and through the prolonged, publicized criticism he'd held for those who used unnecessary brutality in their regimes over the planets held under the Conglomerate's thrall, he'd just been waiting for some repercussion to come his way. He just...he just hadn't expected the Emperor to do it in person. He wasn't sure he could keep his composure._

_The words thundered in his ears, like the rumbling of an earthquake or a hyperdrive engine taking off. 'Dishonourable Discharge.' After almost twenty-three years of continual, loyal service, from his childhood to now, this was what he received for having the capability to think beyond what he had been told to do._

_And he could hear the shouts of people he'd killed, ringing in his ears, as they started to scream at him too, their hatred pounding in the inner walls of his ears and their fury and rage and frustration oozing across his skin and creeping into it. The people from all over the galaxy who'd he'd helped systematically massacre, the people he'd help oppress, the people over whom he'd exercised a right that was not his and there was blood dripping down from his ears and there was a weight, like a thousands suns burning into the cavities of his shoulderblades, and then there was the wailing noise of fire and death._

_And when he saw the collapse of Earth's last buildings around him, he knew that this was the end._

With a start, Sanada awoke upwards, fighting his way out of his sweat-drenched blankets. His ragged breaths were the only things that filled the darkened room, and he swung his legs out, over the edge of the hammock. The darkness soothed him, even with the imprints of fire scorching the inside of his eyelids. It had just been a dream, just a distant memory. It had been two years since his frenzied Discharge from the Military and subsequent escape from the Capital of Hyotei, and two years since he'd last seen the Earth, collapsing and burning and embroiled in fights to the death over their dwindling resources. 

He was here for the sole reason of preventing more of his home from being engulfed by flames, he had to calm himself down, he was going to prevent that from happening again. The Earth was no longer able to sustain the billions of humans that were spawned on it every year, but it was only the rich and the military that could leave the planet's barren surface. The poor had no place to go, yet, they could not stay there on the scorched terrain, that much was clear. 

Which was why, upon his discharge from the military and his discovery of his radical brother upon the surface of the Earth, attempting to spread peace among the downtrodden people there, he had taken it upon his shoulders to find the humans a new home, away from the meddling influence of the Conglomerate, but a place to start afresh. Idealistic, perhaps, but with his stolen technology and capable crew, he knew he could do it. 

He had to do it. 

With a ragged sigh, Sanada rubbed away the sleep at the corner of his eyes and reached over for the PDA on the bedside table. He had only just slept three hours, and the thought made him groan, in frustration. Still, the face of the sculpted Emperor haunted his mind, and Sanada could not return to sleep now. He flicked the light on in the room, and blinked his eyes furiously shut as his eyes protested to the sudden adjustment. 

The small, cramped room was neat and empty, which meant that Akaya was still on duty with Tezuka and Tooyama. He almost got up meaning to head over there, but he knew that Tezuka would give him one of those looks and direct him straight back to his hammock, stating something dry about how he didn't know how to rest. And although Inui would be more than pleased to let Sanada into his room and ramble on about his newest improvement to their rickety old ship, Sanada wasn't sure he could look at the escaped clone in the eyes, with the memories of past atrocities darting around Sanada's mind.

He needed to walk this off. He left the room, idly wandering up through the small, tight corridors of steel, squeezing past Chinen and Osakada's room, which was emitting suspicious plumes of smoke. He didn't want to know about what new weapon they were trying to make in there. But the tall mercenary hadn't blown them up yet, and Sanada was trusting him to continue to remain cautious and stop their newest mute addition from doing anything dangerous. 

He exhaled and ran a hand through his hair. Two years older, two years wiser and two years closer to the grave. It had been an eventful two years, as he skirted around the edges of the Conglomerate's influences, raiding ships for the supplies that they couldn't buy from friendly traders and neutral PAX, trading with people here and there, without forgetting their original purpose. It hadn't been easy, and he had more than a few grey hairs to show for it and very little progress. 

With a light exhale, Sanada turned towards the mess room. He couldn't help but wonder about his family and how they were doing. His brother and his wife were still back on Earth--how were they living, if they were still alive? And then there were his parents living the high life, the privileged life on the planet of Kanagawa, a planet similarly torn by the squabble between the Rikkai Clan and the Jyousei Clan. He wondered how they felt about things. He had not contacted his parents in the aftermath of his discharge. He had not wished to, and he had stood by that decision, but still, he sometimes wondered what his mother, stern-faced and disciplined, thought of his betrayal. 

There was already a light on when Sanada walked into the small mess room and he nodded towards a yawning Niou, who had been lightly napping on one of the tables, but was blearily stirring awake. "You look like hell warmed over, Cap'n." he commented, cheerily, twisting his rattail around his fingers. "Ought to go and get your beauty sleep. I hear cucumber slices are good for your skin."

"No." answered Sanada curtly, as he approached the replicator, which was no longer smoking. "Is it working?"

"Tentatively." hedged Niou, clearly noting Sanada's bad mood, as he got up and loped over to Sanada's shoulder. "Don't try anything too complicated, though, I think Osakada tried something too specific and that's what made it go haywire last time."

Sanada picked up a patch, stuck it to the hollow between his head and spine and thought of miso soup, back when his grandfather and grandmother had still been alive and used to serve it in the mornings. It was simple enough and the machine churned it out, without exploding or overflowing with cake mixture like the last few times it had malfunctioned.

"You know, the best thing to do it just replace the whole thing." Niou suggested, with a loud, catlike yawn, as Sanada took a seat. Niou took that as an invitation to sprawl against his back, and use Sanada's shoulders as a pillow. 

"For now, since we have no money, just put a message up on the PDAs about being careful to stay simple with food." Sanada replied, shoving Niou off his shoulder, without much force. Niou just placed his head straight back against Sanada's shoulder, but followed that instruction, tapping away at the PDA. As annoying as Niou and Akaya could be, they had walked out of the Conglomerate with him, willing to follow him across the universe on whatever quest he felt was morally right. He'd always appreciate that, even if he sometimes (often) got exasperated at one, the other, or both. 

They sat in silence for some time an for a moment, Sanada thought that Niou had drifted back to sleep again, but after a moment, Niou's voice broke the silence punctuated only by Sanada blowing at the black soup. "Isn't it your birthday tomorrow?" asked Niou, "Are you stopping by Yukimura's shop like last year?"

Sanada laughed, dryly. "We're on our way to M-87-2H, we're at least twelve light years from Yukimura's rig. Even if we went hyperdrive, we wouldn't be able to see him for a while. Besides, I already missed he and Shiraishi's birthdays. What is one more year, in the long run?"

Niou smirked and nudged his shoulder. "You're 33. One year closer to being an old man. Should I make you a cake?"

Sanada glanced towards the replicator with a significant look, and Niou grinned, mischievously, not looking entirely apologetic for mentioning it. "You can if you want to. But if the ship crashes because there is cake batter in the engines, you will be the one to fix it."

Niou tilted his head back and laughed loudly, and even Sanada smirked slightly, to himself. It had been a disaster when it had happened, but looking back upon it, it was rather funny. He didn't think that a couple of years ago, he would have _had_ the humour to look back at a mishap like that and laugh. There were good things about leaving the only home he'd known, and that was clarity and perspective and experience. 

"But you know Cap'n, PAX is drifting past here soon. You could stop by and see Yanagi and Shiba." Niou said, his voice more serious and Sanada raised an eyebrow, as he carefully let his spoon clatter against the rim of the empty bowl. This was an unusual train of conversation. 

"Are you going soft on me, Niou?" he asked, quietly, as he stood up, and slid the cup back into the replicator, letting it vanish back into the churning, grumbling machine. "What does it matter to you?"

"You know that we all give a shit about you, right, Cap'n? And at the rate you work, you'll burn out before the 'glomerate catch up and kill us all. None of us want to see that." said Niou, with a dark look, as he leant forward, his slender fingers tapping against his chapped lips. "You better fight and take as many of those bastards down when you go. So you need to rest and relax a bit."

Sanada shut his eyes, for a moment, as fire and his icy blue cold eyes stared down at him from the opulent throne room. "Easier said than done, with so much work to do." he said, quietly. "In two years, we have only surveyed five planets, and have found them all to be lacking. The Earth cannot wait much longer."

Niou snorted. "Humans have been squabbling over land and resources for millennia, they can wait a couple more years. So what if some die? There are 12 billion people on that planet. We can't save everyone, even you want to."

"That's as cold as the Conglomerate. I am not judging peoples's worth or letting them die because we are slacking off." snapped Sanada, feeling a chill through the core at those words. "Everyone has a right to live, even if there are too many of them." 

"What good is finding a new Earth if you're dead from stress before everyone settles there?!" retorted Niou, fisting his hand in the front of Sanada's shirt, his voice loud and harsh. "If every life matters, so does yours!" Sanada's hands clenched together tightly at his sides and he could feel his ears go red, but Niou let go of Sanada's shirt and rolled his eyes, as he leant back on his hip. "Fucking Konomi, Cap'n, your matyr complex is such a pain in the ass. I might just get you that cake with a side of ship if you aren't going to be sensible."

Sanada brushed down his clothes, trying to not react to Niou's astute barbs, and his hands went to adjust a hat that wasn't there. Right. That was still on the bedside of his old quarters. He wondered what they'd done with the things he hadn't been able to liberate with him. Burned them probably, who wanted belongings of a traitor? "Do you still dream?" he asked, quietly, and Niou stiffened, his shoulders coming up involuntarily. 

Sanada looked away and walked away from the room, to head elsewhere, away from the pained expression of his longtime acquaintance. That was as much of an answer as any. 

"I don't sleep without sleeping pills. No other way to stay sane." said Niou, grimly, and his face was filled with memories of what he had left behind, and Sanada just nodded, quietly, as he headed away from the mess hall. He suddenly felt very weary, as if the weight of the world had crashed upon his shoulders, like Atlas had just dropped his burden onto Sanada without warning. He had not wanted this for any of them. He had not wanted them to follow him, he had not wanted a ship full of children and young adults to look after, but Akaya had never looked back from the moment that they'd crashed a ship into the Royal Apartments, and Niou had trailed after him, filled with bitterness, which smoothed out eventually. And now they were here, embroiled in Sanada's struggles, drowned in a quest to save a home that they had not known and would never know. It didn't rest easily but with him, but they _were_ here and that much, he could not reverse. 

He paused against the surface of the padded wall and exhaled, uneasily. Unreversable. He had to keep walking forward and he had to do what he could to keep them safe. 

There was a whoosh of red through the corridor, as Tooyama squeezed past him, yelling a 'Happy Birthday Captain Ojiisan!' behind him, as he fled towards the docking bay, where the hologram room was. Sanada peered after him, watching the teen sprint off into the corridor, but he couldn't help a small smile touching his face, even at the insubordinate title. 

As he reached his cramped room, he noticed Akaya was already there, tugging through his curly hair, and yawning loudly on the top of his hammock. "Are Echizen and Inui back on duty?" asked Sanada as he slipped towards his bunk and loosened the first button on his shirt. 

"Yeah." Akaya said, with a yawn. "Tezuka said he'd stay up there for a bit more, though, and that he'd ping you when he was going to step down." His eyes were slightly bloodshot from lack of sleep and the younger man, just smiled, dryly at Sanada's concerned look, and tapped his fingertips to the clear area underneath his own eyes. Sanada's fingers ran over his own dark bags and grimaced. Touché.

"Your birthday, right?" asked Akaya as Sanada laid back against his hammock, feeling the stretchy fabric ply under his weight. Sanada just grunted in response, turning over to face the younger boy. "Yanagi-senpai asked me to give you something, last time we were in PAX." he said, throwing over a small box. "Said it was from he and Yukimura."

Sanada caught the small box, and after untying the ribbon, pulled open the wooden box. Inside, was a knotted handkerchief and a smooth rock. The rock had the simple carving of 'patience' and the handkerchief was dyed in the colours of Rikkai. There was also a tiny chip to insert into a PDA, tucked carefully into one of the handkerchief's knots and Sanada pushed himself up to his elbows, so he could grab the PDA. Akaya was curiously watching over his shoulder, but Sanada didn't say anything about the eavesdropping. Yukimura and Yanagi were Akaya's acquaintances as well, and it had been a while since they had seen either of the two. 

As soon as the chip was inserted to his PDA, a clear image of Yukimura was projected to the screen. it was not a hologram like most things were nowadays, but it was enough to see the small lines by Yukimura's mouth and the dark smudged under his eyes. "Genichirou." said Yukimura, softly, his voice calm and soothing as ever and Akaya made a small sound of happiness, as he padded over to Sanada's hammock, so he could see better. Sanada moved up a little bit so Akaya could perch on the edge of Sanada's hammock. "Renji tells me that you're heading out towards the west and won't be able to come and see us for a couple of years. As much as this saddens me, I hope that you find what it is that you are looking for."

Sanada just nodded, grimly and Yukimura smiled. "Best returns to you, on your birthday, old friend. Stay well, and don't worry yourself sick. You always were too uptight." Sanada scowled and Akaya laughed, with a look that clearly agreed with Yukimura's sentiment. "The 'Glomerate might be sick and filled with corruption, but it is not easy to overthrow a life of conditioning like you did. You are out now and you have to move forward, without stopping to let the past catch you." said Yukimura softly. "I know you're capable of it."

"Humans are resilient." murmured a familiar voice from behind the camera, and Yanagi's face peered out from the side, looking the same as it had when Sanada had first saved his life, six years ago. "That much has been seen throughout history. You have survived 33 years, so here's to 33 more." said Yanagi, his eyes crinkling softly and Yukimura laughed, as he slung his arm over Yanagi's shoulders, companionably. Sanada couldn't help but smile in response to that. He wondered when it was they had seen each together, but when the planet of PAX and Yukimura's shop traveled all over the universe, it can't have been hard for them to arrange something. 

"Yes, happy birthday, Sanada!" came Shiraishi's chipper voice from off-camera and Akaya laughed at Sanada's sudden annoyed expression. He didn't much like the flamboyant shopkeeper, but he and Yukimura got along well and Yukimura was safe with Shiraishi's poisonous skills to protect him. 

"Well, these chips won't have much memory left soon, but stay well, and send my wishes to your crew." said Yukimura, with a soft smile. "To Tezuka, Akaya and Niou, especially, it's been a while." Akaya waved at the screen, even though he knew that Yukimura couldn't see him, and Sanada couldn't help but smile to himself, fondly, at the actions of his friends. He would be sure to pass the greetings along to Tezuka, though maybe he'd give Niou the video emssage in its entirety. 

"Come visit when you are passing by." said Yanagi, with a soft nod, and the video cut off, clearly as Yanagi was about to say something else. The look on his face had been sentimental and Sanada thought that it was probably for the best that what the other human had been thinking hadn't been voiced aloud. He placed his PDA down, carefully and rolled over onto his back, to stare up at the dark ceiling. Akaya's weight lifted off his bed, and the younger boy flicked off the lights as he headed to his own hammock.

"Night, Cap'n." called the boy, sleepily. "Happy Birthday." 

Sanada grunted in response, as his hand wrapped around the handkerchief and the stone. He was tired, but the images of fire no longer stained his eyes. Instead, there was Yanagi and companionable nights inside the largest library in the known universe and Yukimura, with loud, brash arguments over the state of the universe, as teenagers. Akaya and he and Niou in companionable silence, as they stared out into the oblivion of space together. Kinder memories than his prime being wasted in the service of a madman. His eyes shut, tightly and his frown smoothed out, as sleep called him home.


End file.
